Just taking part is an achievement

Take part and get great experience! This is the advice of the three winners of the Rapid.Tech + FabCon 3.D Start-Up Award 2018 to their potential successors. And to discover who that will be, the next round of the competition is kicking off. Innovative 3D printing and additive manufacturing start-ups can submit applications until 30 March 2019. Eight finalists will get the chance to showcase their business for free in the start-ups area at the 16th Rapid.Tech + FabCon 3.D from 25 to 27 June 2019 at Messe Erfurt. One of them will be selected as “Start-Up of the Year” by the expert jury.

In 2018, the accolade went to Berliner Cellbricks GmbH for its bioprinting method to create human tissue, which helps eliminate the need for animal testing. Managing Director Dr. Lutz Kloke, considers it a success just to have taken part: “Even if we hadn’t won, it would have been an achievement. The competition was an important opportunity for us to present our technology, and the feedback from the jury was a crucial plausibility test for us. The competition also gave us fantastic opportunities to develop personal contacts with investors, potential partners and founders.”

The start ups placed second and third came to a similar conclusion. “We could hardly have imagined a better beginning for our start-up,” said Thomas Reiher, CEO & co-founder of AMendate Paderborn, about their participation in the award. Mentoring from experienced practitioners and contacts made at the trade show helped the provider of software for the creation of topology-optimised components with bionic structures enter the market. For Kumovis GmbH Taufkirchen, who developed a new 3D printer for cost-effective processing of high-performance medical plastics, the competition was a chance to present their core approach to experts. “They endorsed our technology and our business model. And as one of the winners, the media attention we got was also very helpful. What’s more, the coaching was really incredible and delivered a lot of value for us,” remarked Stefan Leonhardt, managing partner at Kumovis.

In the 2019 round of the Start-Up Award, the partners running the competition are once again putting top-class prizes up for grabs. The winners will receive 14,000 euros in prize money, 2,000 euros more than in 2018. They will also each get a free stand at Rapid.Tech + FabCon 3.D 2020, business coaching and a Cur3D software licence for one year, free of charge.

The Start-Up Award will take place as part of the international trade show and conference for additive technologies, Rapid.Tech + FabCon 3.D, which is a unique, top-quality industry event, featuring over 100 user-orientated presentations across its specialist conference and 3D printing conference, and more than 200 exhibitors at its trade show. More than 5,000 international trade visitors and conference delegates are expected in Erfurt for the 16th event, which runs from 25 to 27 June 2019.